Life of an Athlete

The life of an athlete isn’t an easy task. May seem easy, but only because we make it look that way. You have to be cool under pressure and never show weakness. Never let anyone get the best of you while beating the crap out of your opponent. Those guys you see who cry and moan about missed calls or something that isn’t going their way. Are usually overrated and won’t make it unless their talent level is that high. Because they don’t put up with you at the next level unless you’re that good. My favorite being football, I love football because it’s the only sport where you can take another man’s head off and be congratulated for it. It’s the nature of the game, the atmosphere, the brotherhood, the desire to fight to the end. Growing up, sports were generally easy, the bigger kid always wins. And I was one of those big kids who dominated everyone around me. “A man amongst boys” kind of cliché, but one of the minor setbacks of just bullying kids is you don’t develop a good work ethic. Doesn’t always happen but in my case it did. I became lazy because I was used to just using my size, don’t get me wrong I had some skill. Not a lot of footwork, could still get the job done. I could’ve been way better, way more dominate. That’s usually a big problem I get too comfortable with being comfortable. I never reached for the stars I just aimed for what I believed was good enough. I do this in school also which is a major problem. Because without good grades I can’t compete at the next level. Now before I go on a tangent about grades let’s get back to the story. Football started for me the earliest it could start at age 6 with flags, which I hated. I was an aggressive kid so I wanted to hit before you could. The other kids weren’t ready but I was so I was like why not. I actually got in a lot of fights because of my tendencies to hit other teammates. As soon as I turned 8 I could finally put the pads on and hit somebody for real. Ah those were the good ole days, not a care in the world could run my little ashy butt around and have fun. My last year of playing rec (recreational football) was my 7th grade year. That’s when I transition to middle school ball. I played two years of football for middle school football, my 7th and 8th grade year started running back and linebacker.

Last year though my 9th grade year was the first year I didn’t start and realized what it felt like to “ride the pine”, “warm the bench”, and the other thousands of terrible phrases that sat lingering in my mind. My Jv Coach told me I was too slow to play on the offensive side of the ball. Even though I had this adversity, this is also the year it clicked for me. I needed to actually work hard for what I wanted or take a back seat and be along for the ride. But back to my moment, the first moment when I realized I loved football. I was playing for my local team the Chamberlayne Packer`s, I took the hand off break one tackle break another. And its like a whole group of kids jump on my back and I still drag them all along with me. I will not be denied and then out the corner of my eye I spot one small kid who tries to come hit me out of now where. WAM I run him clean over, go in for six and the scored roars. It really does feel amazing when you have a collective group of people who a cheering your name. Robby! Robby! Robby! It felt great. I finally seen what it felt like to be like the big guys on Tv. Who did it on a daily. Those guys were amazing, outstanding players like LaDainian Tomlinson, Sean Taylor, and Ray Lewis had that flair that kind of made you hate them so much that you loved them. I wanted to be like that, I don’t do much talking, I let my game do the talking.

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